The human race is about to give birth to a new species ...World War III will be the war against our extinction. Christopher Dicken, 'virus hunter' of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, joins an emergency Taskforce on the order of the President. Around the world, what were thought to be ancient junk genes in human DNA have been stimulated to assemble encoded proteins and RNA into an infectious virus which attacks only women -- and it kills unborn children. It's called SHEVA, an apt name for a killer. Dicken needs Kaye Lang on his team. She's the scientist who predicted the emergence of SHEVA. She knows more about SHEVA than anyone...Except for one other scientist, a paleontologist, who has intuited even more. But, Mitch Rafelson has no credibility whatsoever. The sin of overwhelming curiosity has left him an unemployed outcast -- and revealed to him something nobody else knows, not even Kaye Lang. Our place on the ladder of evolution is not where we thought. All other wars in history have been in some way between the forces of good and evil. Not this war. Like a signal on Darwin's radio SHEVA is broadcasting an extraordinary truth about the origin of species. SHEVA confirms Darwin's view of 'blundering, low and horribly cruel works of nature'. There are those who will want to control human destiny, and others who will fight them. The Descent of Man is at hand. At once a gripping thriller on the grandest scale and a tender love story, this is a uniquely controversial and thought-provoking page-turner.